Hecla No. 1 Coke Ovens

The Hecla No. 1 Mine and Coke Works, containing 272 ovens, began operation in 1882 by the Hecla Coke Company. In 1906 the H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired operation of the coke works as well Hecla No. 1 and Hecla No. 2/Trauger (see Trauger coke ovens in a previous post). He also acquired the towns of Hecla and Trauger.  That year the three coke works produced over 401,000 tons of coke. Production began to diminish in 1926. Only 11 coke ovens were used at No. 1 and the mine produced less than 30,000 tons of coal. In 1929 Frick abandoned the No. 1 Mine and Coke Works.

These ovens are pretty hard to get to.  They're very much grown in and most are completely buried. It is a nice sized block of ovens though.

Beginning (or ending) of the block.

The enormous slate dump. I would imagine this was shared by both the No. 1 and No. 3 mines.